SyFy, 30 July 2012
The Alphas team tackle a super-speed menace…
Continuing to plunder the comic-book greats, Alphas takes the idea of The Flash and makes him a tragic villain, seemingly part of a larger plot that he has no real knowledge of.
One time Hitcher C. Thomas Howell stars as Eli, the unfortunate victim of medical experimentation who can move ten times as fast as other people, but is also ageing ten times faster than normal. Out for revenge on those who caused his ‘talent’, Eli tangles with the Alphas team. The slight speeding up of C. Thomas Howell’s movements and speech makes for a neat effect when he’s communicating with Dr Rosen (David Strathairn).
While this story is fairly standard stuff, it is the autistic character of Gary (Ryan Cartwright, above) who provides the real entertainment. Having trouble adapting to the other Government employees around the Alpha HQ, Gary cracks up when his food in the fridge is tampered with. His antics make up for an otherwise fairly routine A-story.
More interestingly, there is something of an arc plot slowly building concerning the long-lived villain Stanton Parish, with a question remaining over Rosen’s daughter’s true loyalties. Here’s hoping this builds to something substantial and satisfying.
Verdict: The Government stole my pudding!
Episode 2 ‘The Quick and the Dead’: 6/10
Brian J. Robb
IF YOU HAVE COME HERE PLEASE REDIRECT YOUR BROWSER TO WWW.SCIFIBULLETIN.COM 